'64 Merc build, let's call it "gasser inspired"
Posted: September 20, 2011, 2:18 pm
here's where we started three years ago
after a TON of work-you can see pics on my intro thread- we got to this, a 5 litre powered, t-5 shifted truck with some minor suspension mods and big ass radials out back
and my personal favorite-putting a tri five on the trailer!
well, as these things sometimes go, I got hooked on drag racing, so back into the shop for round two!
box off, frame cleaned up and painted
then, I decided to shorten the box to center up the wheels in the rear fender openings
I reached 1 1/4 inches as the number to remove from the box
and steps
a quick tub job
then the box went back together with a fuel cel and battery box mounted securely in place
cleaned up the firewall
for this little beauty, a 306, Ford block, aluminum Trick Flow heads, aftermarket crank and pistons and a Weiand tunnel ram, up to this point, I had done all the work myself, but I farmed the engine build out to Precision Engines on Vancouver's north shore, I got back a 10.5:1, 408hp/373 foot pound little screamer, tuned and dyno'd...worth every penny!
mated it up to the trusty t5, we'll see how it handles the power and torque, I've been told it should be OK, just no speed shifts...
here it is between the rails, test fit on the headers, hot tip: I searched high and low for a set of headers that would work for this application, I found these at Schoenfeld and am very happy with the fit (might tweak the collectors a bit to exit under the fenders)
then back to the head scratching
once the engine was in and the front end was loaded, it was time to tackle the front end, over arched springs with a couple of extra leaves, I moved the rear mounts forward a couple of inches to compensate, added a 7 degree caster wedge, bucked off the shock towers and sourced a drop drag link from a Ford 4x4 (trying to keep it all Ford don't ya know!)
the interior re-do included a filing of the floor and a set of buckets, I managed to set myself on fire welding in the bucket sub frame in, d'oh
after a two week thrash, I managed to get it together on on a trailer to the all Ford drags, where I passed tech (pretty stoked on that!) here's the engine bay all ready to go
in the staging lanes
and LAUNCH!
hope to be showing this view to lot's of folks around the Pacific Northwest
We got three pulls in but were hampered by a clutch linkage issue and gearing that worked fine for a single plane mostly stock motor (4.10) but was wrong for the higher rpm power band of the tunnel ram...so up next year, a new clutch set up and some 4.56's
BTW, YES, I am aware that there are all sorts of historical inaccuracies in this build, and honestly, I don't f*cking care, it was built by me to have fun with at the track and on the street and as a tribute the to crazy stuff I used to draw on my notebooks back in grade school...remember, this is a hobby, it's supposed to be fun!
It will continue to evolve, a stroke, then a blower, and possibly injection as well as a paint job are all in the works.
after a TON of work-you can see pics on my intro thread- we got to this, a 5 litre powered, t-5 shifted truck with some minor suspension mods and big ass radials out back
and my personal favorite-putting a tri five on the trailer!
well, as these things sometimes go, I got hooked on drag racing, so back into the shop for round two!
box off, frame cleaned up and painted
then, I decided to shorten the box to center up the wheels in the rear fender openings
I reached 1 1/4 inches as the number to remove from the box
and steps
a quick tub job
then the box went back together with a fuel cel and battery box mounted securely in place
cleaned up the firewall
for this little beauty, a 306, Ford block, aluminum Trick Flow heads, aftermarket crank and pistons and a Weiand tunnel ram, up to this point, I had done all the work myself, but I farmed the engine build out to Precision Engines on Vancouver's north shore, I got back a 10.5:1, 408hp/373 foot pound little screamer, tuned and dyno'd...worth every penny!
mated it up to the trusty t5, we'll see how it handles the power and torque, I've been told it should be OK, just no speed shifts...
here it is between the rails, test fit on the headers, hot tip: I searched high and low for a set of headers that would work for this application, I found these at Schoenfeld and am very happy with the fit (might tweak the collectors a bit to exit under the fenders)
then back to the head scratching
once the engine was in and the front end was loaded, it was time to tackle the front end, over arched springs with a couple of extra leaves, I moved the rear mounts forward a couple of inches to compensate, added a 7 degree caster wedge, bucked off the shock towers and sourced a drop drag link from a Ford 4x4 (trying to keep it all Ford don't ya know!)
the interior re-do included a filing of the floor and a set of buckets, I managed to set myself on fire welding in the bucket sub frame in, d'oh
after a two week thrash, I managed to get it together on on a trailer to the all Ford drags, where I passed tech (pretty stoked on that!) here's the engine bay all ready to go
in the staging lanes
and LAUNCH!
hope to be showing this view to lot's of folks around the Pacific Northwest
We got three pulls in but were hampered by a clutch linkage issue and gearing that worked fine for a single plane mostly stock motor (4.10) but was wrong for the higher rpm power band of the tunnel ram...so up next year, a new clutch set up and some 4.56's
BTW, YES, I am aware that there are all sorts of historical inaccuracies in this build, and honestly, I don't f*cking care, it was built by me to have fun with at the track and on the street and as a tribute the to crazy stuff I used to draw on my notebooks back in grade school...remember, this is a hobby, it's supposed to be fun!
It will continue to evolve, a stroke, then a blower, and possibly injection as well as a paint job are all in the works.
